All The Bs

The Bs in question through this post being bats, blossom, beer, barbeque, beetle.

Last evening after posting, I went down to join the family females watching Jesus Christ Superstar the stage show. Luckily I was distracted by the sight of the first bats of the year hawking outside the front window. When I nipped out to check the moth traps, one was swooping around very low over the garden. I didn't bother checking them with the detector - every one I've ever checked here has been a standard 45k Pipistrelle.

The moth trap was a little better, not so much in numbers but at least some NFY species starting to turn up.

Oak-tree Pug

Oak Nycteoline

Least Black Arches

Remember early last year when our neighbours had a lovely big plum tree cut down? Turned out the neighbours were worried about some minor subsidence of their conservatory. The photos from then showed our large flowering cherry. That was actually starting to get too big for it's own good and we had it pruned later in the year. Today it was just about in full bloom and looking okay - at least it wasn't completely decimated ... or felled!

We've also got another blossoming tree in the garden that we acquired last year, albeit still a spindly twig in a pot. It's a peach that should produce some fruit. Except that so far this year I've not seen a single bee or other insect go anywhere near it. Today I spent a few minutes carefully brushing and cross-contaminating the flowers - no idea if that will make any difference!

I confused myself briefly when I noticed Peach Blossom in the labels index .....

A cursory look at the Hart's-tongue Fern at the bottom of the garden for any sign of either Psychoides sp. produced an early instar surprise ..

Common Footman

And then the rest of the day was taken up drinking beer and barbequeing various meats and halloumi skewers ...

Just like buses, a couple of Ravens soared overhead for a few minutes but nothing new birdwise. A Holly Blue butterfly fluttered through, the first here for the year. Later this evening, the first of another garden pests appeared ...

Vine Weevil

And then sitting out this evening with a coffee, the bats were out in force and the skies looked very promising indeed. It was warm, still and with a bit of cloud cover. I felt it was worth going to the effort of running both traps, especially as the forecast was for a dry night with min temp c8deg.

22W Synergetic / 12W Blacklight LED

125W MV

And then whilst I've been typing this, it has absolutely hammered it down with rain .......

Pest

pest

noun: pest; plural noun: pests

1. A destructive insect or other animal that attacks crops, food, livestock, etc.

So is an insect that attacks garden plants a pest? Not for me, otherwise every single moth would be classed as one.

But we do have a few insects that seem to make a point of proliferating as such a rate that they are damaging the host plants. Over the last couple of years or so we have two garden beetles that are on a sharp increase and starting to become pests!

One is bright red, appears from early April-ish and might still be knocking around in one form or another into late summer. I first saw this in the garden in April 2011, and it is now a dead cert to arrive. They are always on my Snake's-head Fritilaries to start with, and now we have some lilies growing in pots they'll be smothered in larvae in a few weeks. The larvae try to hide themselves by hiding within a cloak of their own shite. Nice.

Scarlet Lily Beetle

The other is less obvious. We've had them in the garden for a while and I've never considered them as a potential pest despite their reputation for the larvae attacking roots. They can reproduce parthenogenetically, so potentially could increase in numbers quite easily. Up to now I've seen the odd one, sometimes in the moth trap. But we now have quite a large hydrangea growing in a large pot, and whilst looking for something else I noticed one on the outside of the pot ... and then at least eight on the soil-surface inside the pot. Looks like they've made the hydrangea their home. To be honest I'm not that bothered - it's not a garden plant that I chose or particularly like ........

Vine Weevil